HPLN: Scenes From Elsewhere: Ptolemies IV

With the Victory at Lahun and the Capture of Ptolemy Philadelphos, the first priority that Ptolemy Kerounos had was to ensure the swift surrender of the force of largely Native Egyptian Troops and War Elephants that the now-captive ex-Pharaoh of Lower Egypt had sent to quell the Serapian Revolt at Heliopolis. Ptolemy Kerounos, moving with the speed that he was accustomed to, and for which he had received his epithet, struck at the Lower Egyptian Siege Camp outside the walls of Heliopolis swiftly and without warning in the dead of night. Beginning with a cavalry raid on the siege camp and ending with a general attack by lighter-equipped Torakitai backed by Nubian Longbowmen, the night assault was sudden, brutal, and devastating.

The chaos created by the sudden and swift night assault had been made all the worse when the War Elephants, suddenly spooked to be attacked in their pens when they didn't expect it, formed a stampede, trampling through a swathe of the siege camps and slaying the Lower Egyptian Commander, a man named Nektenebos, who was a partially Hellenized Native Egyptian who claimed to be capable of tracing his lineage back to the last native dynasty of Egypt via an illegitimate son of Nektanebos the First, founder of the thirtieth and last native dynasty of Egypt.

Such claims were considered dubious at best, but Nektanebos' talent for drilling troops had won him his appointment regardless. Unfortunately, he had not had the time required to drill his troops to instill more than a baseline level of discipline and competency in them, as the force he commanded had almost immediately been thrown at Heliopolis to quash the rebels. His death caused what fragile discipline remained amongst the Native Egyptian Troops after the chaos of Ptolemy Kerounos' attack and the sudden stampede of terrified war elephants to shatter completely, with multiple contingents simply fleeing the camp with whatever they could grab from their tents.

By the morning, the war elephants had scattered to the four winds, Nektanebos was dead, a quarter of the Native Army of Lower Egypt had deserted in panic, another quarter had been slain, and Ptolemy Kerounos was now in possession of the majority of the supplies and coin to feed and pay the Native Army with, even if some semblance of a force had managed to drag itself together in along the Western Bank of the Nile to fight as the light of day shone upon the face of the land. Had they fought, there would have been little doubt they would have been slaughtered to a man. Thankfully, Ptolemy Kerounos, possibly mindful of the need to reach a speedy conclusion to the War, offered them terms for surrender.

The Native Forces would be allowed to retain their pay, but they would be required to lay down their arms, stand down, and swear an oath to him as their new Pharaoh in the sight of the Gods of Greece and Egypt combined. This took place over the course of three days, in an event that would become known as the Binding of Amun, Zeus, and Serapis. It was called such because it bound the remnants of the Native Forces of Ptolemy Philadelphos to the fealty of Ptolemy Kerounos and because it was presided over by the Priests of those three temples in Heracleopolis,

Once that was finished, Ptolemy Kerounos moved on up the Nile toward Alexandria, leaving a few men behind to see that the Native Forces of his captured brother made good on their sacred oaths and stood down, as well as to help round up the scattered elephants that had fled in the chaos of the Assault on the Siege Camp. As Ptolemy Kerounos moved north, town after city after village threw open their gates to his army or otherwise signified fealty in some other fashion.

Finally, at last, as the high summer finally began in earnest, Ptolemy Kerounos' force arrived at Alexandria, where he was swiftly crowned as Pharaoh of Lower Egypt, reunifying the Two Ladies and joining them together with Nubia to form a single Ptolemaic Kingdom once again. Once he was installed in the Palace at Alexandria, however, new issues presented themselves, such was how these sorts of things often went. Chiefly, there were three such issues that had to be dealt with as a priority before anything more could be done elsewhere.

First, Ptolemy Philadelphos had to be judged for his actions, and a proper punishment had to be implemented. Then there was Pyrrhus of Epirus, Ptolemy Kerounos's old Friend and current ally. He was still sitting in Lahun with his army, and many in Alexandria were worried he might decide to take the throne himself. Some floated the idea of simply paying him off, but that ran into the third problem, the Treasury had been practically bankrupted by a combination of Ptolemy Philadelphos' increasingly lavish spending on poetics, the arts, and natural philosophy, the need to rebuild the Army after the first round of war, and the funding of the most recent round of war. It was even looking increasingly doubtful that the Treasury would be able to pay for the running of the Kingdom without an injection of Nubian Gold and Silver sometime in the next two to three months.

The Latter Two Problems were easily solvable with a number of correspondence sent to Pyrrhus at Lahun. These bore the official Royal Seals of Egypt that Ptolemy Philadelphos had taken from their father's study while Ptolemy Kerounos was away as part of his coup, and contained the official grants of trade terms, an Elephant Herd, and the ceding of the Provinces of Cyrenaica and Marmarica that Magas had controlled into the keeping of Epirus. There was also personal correspondence from Ptolemy Kerounos to Pyrrhus, inquiring as to why he was still in Lahun, and whether or not that loan he had promised would still be forthcoming.

Fortunately for Ptolemy Kerounos, Pyrrhus wrote back to his old friend, and the Court in Alexandria received his reply within a fortnight, stating that he was still in Lahun because the wounds he had taken in the Battle there required a certain amount of healing before he would be strong enough to do anything besides command his army via dispatches from his tent. As for the Loan, he had already sent a messenger to the Fleet, currently harbored in the Port of Ptolemais in Cyrenaica, with the orders to his treasury back in Epirus. All that was necessary was for Ptolemy Kerounos to read over the agreement and dispatch a messenger with his reply, yes or no, to the terms of the loan, for Pyrrhus to give the go-ahead to put things into play properly.

Interestingly enough, the Terms of the Loan were generous, so much so that Ptolemy Kerounos was a bit perplexed. Pyrrhus could have demanded much more stringent terms and much higher loan repayments, but he had not. Instead, he was offering the Treasury of Egypt three-hundred-thousand Drachma to keep the Kingdom running smoothly and aid in reconstruction until such time as the Nubian Mines could send their production north to the Treasury at Alexandria and remove the need for such loans. These would be required to be paid back to one quarter again the full value within the next five years, averaging out to needing to pay seventy-five-thousand Drachma to Epirus each year for the next five years for the loan to be paid off. With Nubian gold in the treasury, that was doable while still being able to rebuild and run the Kingdom.

This would only be helped along by Epirote Merchants sailing into Alexandria to take up the trade benefits that Epirus had gained out of the treaty, which in turn stimulated trade between the Kingdom and Epirus and her Clients. This helped bring more wealth to Alexandria, from which the Treasury could take its due share, in turn helping to further fund the continued running and reconstruction of the Kingdom. Pyrrhus of Epirus had clearly intended for his Ally to become as stable as possible, as soon as possible, when he had negotiated these terms.

Really, it was only the Elephants that remained to be delivered upon, as Ptolemy Kerounos' forces took much of the remainder of the Summer of Two-Seventy-Eight, rounding up the scattered Elephants, picking out which ones would be considered acceptable under the terms of the treaty negotiated with Pyrrhus, and matching enough of them with females of breeding age to allow a sustainable herd. This, however, was not as difficult as the other issues may have been, for it only cost time, as opposed to time and funds.

Nevertheless, by the time the Autumn of Two-Seventy-Eight was in full swing, two of the three immediate problems had been solved. The Loan Shipments from Epirus arrived in the Port of Alexandria with the promised Drachmae, and Pyrrhus had recovered enough to make the journey to his newest holdings in Cyrenaica and Marmarica, removing himself, and more importantly, his army, from Egypt. That led to the last crucial sticking point. Namely, what to do about his brother.

Ptolemy Philadelphos was no one's fool. He knew that Ptolemy Kerounos could not kill him without being seen as a Kinslayer, and thus as unworthy to rule in the eyes of Gods and Men. For the Native Egyptians, Kinslaying was an imitation of the horrific acts that Set perpetrated on Osiris, while for the Greeks, it brought to mind the image of the Titan Cronus devouring his children. Both would have the nobility and commons screaming for Ptolemy Kerounos' head. Maybe not all, or even most of them, but enough to cause revolts. He was right on that account, too, and Ptolemy Kerounos knew it. However, Ptolemy Kerounos also could not allow his brother to live, even in exile. So long as he could still be propped on a horse, Ptolemy Philadelphos would be a standard around which those dissatisfied with Ptolemy Kerounos' rule could rally.

What Ptolemy Kerounos needed was some legitimate way to make it appear as if Ptolemy Philadelphos had sinned badly enough to warrant his execution. It might not appease everyone, but doing it this way would appease enough that the expected revolts might not even materialize. Fortunately, Ptolemy Philadelphos' conduct gave Ptolemy Kerounos all the arrows he required in that particular quiver. The adultery and incest that Ptolemy Philadelphos and Arsinoe had committed were not enough on their own. Their Late Father's Will, on the other hand, and the situation involving it, might just be enough to tip the balance of the scales of legitimacy in Ptolemy Kerounos' favor.

Of course, Ptolemy Philadelphos had tried desperately to bury the Will after the initial reading, searching for any copies that may have been made and destroying them so that only the version of events which claimed that it was Philadelphos, not Kerounos, that had been proclaimed as the official successor of Ptolemy I Soter by the last will and testament of the Man himself. After years of this search and destroy mission, almost every copy had been destroyed by the time that Ptolemy Kerounos and his forces had arrived in Alexandria to claim the city and the throne. Almost every copy save one, that was.

As it turned out, it was Ptoelmy Philadelphos' fondness for historians, playwrights, poets, and other such learned men of letters that ultimately wound up being the cause of his final downfall. It was Zenodotos of Ephesos, the famed Grammarian and Homeric Scholar, who had secreted away a single copy. This, it turned out, had even been a part of his official mandate, as Ptolemy Philadelphos had originally become Zenodotos' Patron for the purposes of having the Scholar begin work on creating a grand library on the grounds of the Palace of Alexandria. As part of that duty, Zenodotos had kept a single copy of the Will of Ptolemy I Soter from the flames to preserve the Companion of Alexandros Megas' last words for the eventual Library.

Here, it was found out that, in fact, it was not Philadelphos who had been named as Ptolemy I Soter's official successor, but in actuality, it was Kerounos who had been so. Their father had always intended for Kerounos to rule after him, and the proof was written in Papyrus right here. Ptolemy Kerounos had his legitimacy, and he made the findings of his Royal Inquiry into Ptolemy Philadelphos' conduct public on the fifteenth of October, along with the appropriate spin, of course. Bias or no bias, the effect was exactly as Ptolemy Kerounos had wished for, with many up in arms over it.

Indeed, even the learned men of Alexandria, who had so benefitted from his Brother's Patronage, calling the act of attempting to cheat Kerounos out of his patrimony an act of Barbarism, more fit for an effete and treacherous Persian Despot than for one of the Heirs of Alexandros Megas. Several nobles, especially among the old Hellenic Military Settler Families, were a lot less polite, publicly calling for Philadelphos' head. They would receive their wish.

On the Thirty-First of October, Two-Seventy-Eight, Ptolemy Philadelphos was executed. He was given a choice between death by poison or death by strangulation. Philadelphos, ever the would-be Scholar at heart, chose the Hemlock in emulation of the famed Sokrates. Whatever his intent, his death would be far less mourned than that of the Philosopher he was attempting to emulate. By the time the funeral was over, a minimal affair in keeping with Philadelphos' treachery in life, and the mourning period had ended, likewise minimal, cutting it down to just under a month, Upper and Lower Egypt, as well as Nubia, were fully under the control of Ptolemy Kerounos, and the task of rebuilding in earnest could begin.

And after two deadly civil conflicts, that rebuilding would continue for quite some time before the Ptolemies felt comfortable flexing their might internationally once more. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here's the next chapter. It largely focuses on the immediate aftermath of the Second and Final Brother's War from the Perspective of Ptolemy Kerounos, now sole Basileus and Pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt, as well as Nubia. It turns out, having Pyrrhus as one of your closest friends from both of your childhoods is good for more than just military assistance. He's also willing to help you get back on your feet. Of course, that's a pragmatic move on Pyrrhus' Part as well as something done out of friendship. Better to have a stable ally than one that's just a bad harvest away from collapsing, after all. Either way, Pyrrhus' help with loans and trade has allowed the Egyptian Economy to begin making money again, and the sooner it does that, the sooner the treasury can get its cut and the sooner the treasury can do that, the sooner rebuilding can start. It also has allowed Kerounos to find an excuse to execute Philadelphos, in a most ironic way, too.

Locations in this chapter are few, but Heliopolis is on the Modern Site of Beni Suef in Egypt, Lahun is on the site of Modern-Day Faiyum in Egypt, Ptolemais is on the site of the Modern-Day Village of Tolmeita in Libya, Upper Egypt is the southern half of Modern-Day Egypt, while Lower Egypt is the Northern half of Modern-Day Egypt, Nubia is in Modern-Day Sudan, Cyrenaica is in Modern-Day Libya along the northeastern coast, and Marmarica straddles the border between Modern-Day Libya and Egypt. Finally, Alexandria is Alexandria, that's pretty self-explanatory.

At any rate, the next chapter will be another Scenes From Elsewhere Interlude, this one showing Carthage, then we'll get a look at the Seleucids, before moving on to Rome and the Minor Powers afterwards.

Stay tuned. . .